[Christine]

One area of land that used to be allotments now has planning permission for umpty houses, a new small town square with shops, a supermarket and a multi storey car park - however it was owed by the local Duke who seems to be in need of the money.  The fact that he was renting out double plots at a silly rate between £5-£10 a year just meant that he was being a charitable concern for many years.

[Celery]

I spoke to my brother the other night and he said that the allottment in Woking are safe. 
       celery

[cathangirl]

Yes, John,
I absolutely refuse to step in our local T...o store, because they built their car park on a huge allotment site some 18 years ago.

No amount of fighting them off worked ........ money obviously talked, but I'll say no more on that, as I know politics are not a good idea on here.
 
Gardeners were distraught at being turfed out of beautifully productive plots.

cathangirl

[Ourveggiepatch]

As far as I am aware the council have a legal duty to provide allotments if residents so require therefore, if they sell off the land they must re-locate you and your lottie neighbours - have a look on the net for legal duties for councils regarding this and quote it too them, they will sit up and and get the shock of their lives and may help stop the selling off of the land!

[Chookster]

well, in dover, i was told the council are always looking to find new areas to make way for allotments - saying that, i'm 86th on the list - since over 2 years ago!

Guys - look up hugh fearnley whittingstall's landshare thing he's doing. you are SO much more likely to get somewhere also if you ask about at farmers markets, veg shops, farms etc.  I've used that to set up my space and have had someone kind enough to allow me total free range of choice as to keeping chickens, quails, pigs, bees etc. Not saying you're going ot get that lucky first time asking someone but it's a more proactive way of getting some land to use.
xXx

[Yorkie]

As far as I am aware the council have a legal duty to provide allotments if residents so require therefore, if they sell off the land they must re-locate you and your lottie neighbours - have a look on the net for legal duties for councils regarding this and quote it too them, they will sit up and and get the shock of their lives and may help stop the selling off of the land!

The vast majority of councils are already aware of their duties under the Allotments Acts, and it's not quite as straightforward as simply requiring them to provide lotties, I'm afraid 

Have a look at this thread, which admittedly relates to the closure of sites but also has some info on the law you're referring to (saves me typing it out again  )

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=30071.0

[Ourveggiepatch]

I also tried the landshare scheme and in other parts of the country other than dorset there seemed to be loads of land going spare, I even applied to the National Trust as they are now setting up allotments on some of their properties such as Kingstone Lacy however they seem to be aiming their plots to schools, and community groups etc... so not much luck for me.

I got mine being 30th on the list by simply pestering our local council, making suggestions and enquiries eventually they were so pressurised into finding additional land that they teamed up with another local village who couldnt fill their plots.

Good luck with the search and it maybe worth having a look at the link regarding the law - I thought it was more simple than it is but haven't actually looked into it as I was one of the lucky few to get a plot after waiting 3 years.

Some suggestions to make when contacting councils for an allotment are:


splt plots for new tennents so at least some people will get something when a plot is vacated
try contacting other local villages - have they got spare plots and could the 2 councils work in partnership
find your local farm shop - ask if they would be willing to rent land to people on the waiting list or, to the council - ours was
ask the council to contact all people on waiting list - would they be willing to arrange a     private allotment etc...

good luck

[alottery]

Our lists are over 200 long for most council allotments in our area and 30+ for private allotments.  Various members of the public (including myself) and organisations such as the Hastings and St Leonards Allotments Federation have tried, over a number of years, to force the local council to reopen allotments as they have watched the lists grow and grow.

Regardless of the letters sent to local papers and councils, they are very slow in moving - citing that they have now got an improved policy for evicting people from untended plots as the first stage of improvement - even though this appears to be very slow and the member of staff at the local council only has 10% of his duties assigned to the management of allotments.

They are currently sitting on a few sites that are statutory and therefore illegally left fallow over the last nine years but claim cost being the reason that they are reticent to reopen these sites before pursuing this new policy.

However, a portion of former Hastings allotment site has been put up for auction on 9th June 2009 (http://www.cliveemson.co.uk/listing_view.asp?Lot=85&Auc=133).  I have queried ownership and it appears to not be in the ownership of the council, who stated in their response to my question on their local Ask The Leader site, that they have no plans to sell off allotment land: (http://www.hastings.gov.uk/asktheleader/questionsanswers.aspx see questions 787, 786, etc)

I have been attempting to meet five other local council tax payers who are on the allotment list in order to start an action against the council and have received support from the allotment federation as mentioned.  However, I have not been yet contacted by anyone despite advertising on various allotment sites, sending a letter to the local paper (that hasn't yet been published), contacting BBC Southern Counties and posting on Hastings Network forum. 

The federation have since discovered that leaving the statutory sites fallow is tantamount to putting them out of action - something they cannot do without permission from the Secretary of State - so the federation (supported by NGALG) is currently challenging them about this.

[thecally]

Does anyone have any experience of local councils trying to sell off their allotment sites for development? Garden News is investigating this practice and is interested in finding out how big a problem it is and asked for our help.

I rent an allotment on the burnley road site in Blackburn, the council are trying to force through a road that will take away the alloments,
any advice would be welcomey e-mail adress is edited for security reasons Please use PM
M

[scabs]

Hi,

I know I'm late on this but somehow I never spotted it!

Before I joined, the council tried to build houses on our site. Here's some info...

2006: http://www.nemadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/519552_allotments_selloff_plot_outcry

2007: http://www.ooffoo.com/listing/Our-threatened-allotments.aspx

2007: http://manchester-libdems.org.uk/news/000458/secretary_of_state_rejects_labours_manchester_allotment_selloff.html

2007: http://www.amas.org.uk/edge-lane-allotments/

2009: http://www.thisiseast.com/tag/allotments/


Our site is now going from strength to strength!

[DD.]

Our council actually acknowledge that may have to get more, (half way down the page)....

http://www.charnwood.gov.uk/pages/allotments

[PennyS]

Hi
Don't know about councils, in our village the local Diocese booted the allotment holders out and put the land up for sale for development as they needed to generate funds.  So having spent goodness knows what fighting for planning permission (it kept getting refused but they eventually pushed it through), 4 years later the land is still up for sale, nobody has bought it, the Diocese has spent a fortune and previously productive land is sitting idle.

Happily a local farmer has leased some land to our parish council and we have a brand new allotment site!

Still seething about the Diocese land though!

Penny

[richyrich7]

Not too far from me is a whole site left to go derelict and will this year be put on the market to sell.
Wycombe road plots in Leicester where also reduced by about 2/3 ds some years back to provide more housing space. Sad but there has been little demand in some areas of Leicester for plots others are booming 

[Zeb]

Here in Scunthorpe (Nth Lincs), an allotment site has been empty for the last decade.
The council have dug a ditch and piled up earth across the entrance to stop travellers/fly tippers etc.

[John]

One answer to unused allotments can be to split them. A lot of people find a traditional 10 rod plot too much to cope with but half and even quarter plots are more manageable and so get let. Once people have the skills, they feel able and want to take on larger plots.

We have between 80,000 and 100,000 people nationally on waiting lists. I think part of the problem is some areas are really short whereas others are actually oversupplied, Split plots would go a long way to addressing both problems.